MAKING A MARK: An appeal for school supplies and a waterside cleanup

Remember that smell of freshly sharpened pencils? Or the pleasure of filling new three-ring binders with pristine looseleaf paper?

Halifax Grammar School student Renuka Koilpillai says she has always loved getting new school supplies, so when she heard last year that the Parker Street Food & Furniture Bank in Halifax was soliciting back-to-school supplies to give to families in need, she was keen to share that joy.

Koilpillai, who just finished Grade 11, collected donations over the past year through her school and church, but she decided to ramp up her efforts by appealing to the business community this summer.

Dubbing her venture the Corporate Challenge Campaign, she is asking businesses to donate a backpack, school supplies or the cost of both — around $60 — to help Parker Street’s 500 or so families on the waiting list.

She said while all sorts of supplies are needed, there is a particular need for items for older students, such as graphing calculators and more advanced geometry sets.

“Sometimes you take things like this for granted, like school supplies, which are such a basic need,” said Koilpillai.

That is how much garbage a group of students at Atlantic Memorial —Terence Bay Elementary School collected on a recent trip to the waterside at nearby Prospect.

The Grade 4 and 5 students studied the amount and types of garbage found along 600 metres of shoreline in order to learn about the effects of pollution.

Ruth Fabian-Fine, a biologist who visited the school to teach the kids about pollution, helped co-ordinate the trip. Fabian-Fine said items such as pop cans, plastic foam, tires and fishing gear such as buoys and lobster traps were among the most common items collected.

After the field trip — which the students paid for using the proceeds of a fundraising campaign in which they sold watermelons — the students discussed ways to reduce the amount of trash they produce.

“It was really heartwarming to hear how enthusiastic they were about that,” said Fabian-Fine.

Her daughter, Lena, who just completed Grade 5 at the school, said the students learned a lot.

“They were really surprised to see how much garbage people can produce.”

Lena said she hopes the trip helps change some of her classmates’ attitudes toward garbage.